


Stella

by ButterflyGhost



Category: due South
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hope, Loss, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-26
Updated: 2012-03-26
Packaged: 2017-11-02 13:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/369468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterflyGhost/pseuds/ButterflyGhost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by the due South zombie universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stella

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kalijean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalijean/gifts), [SLWalker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The due South Zombie Radioplay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/142177) by [kalijean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalijean/pseuds/kalijean), [SLWalker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/pseuds/SLWalker). 



“Hey.” A soft voice, with a smile in it.

He opens his eyes, and it's the most natural thing in the world that she is curled up on the deck, lying next to him, that sweet gaze shining straight into his face. 

“Oh God, Stella... I thought you were dead.”

She moves right up to him, and he feels her heat, her sweet warm scent.

“Shush,” she's touching his cheek with her finger, tracking a tear. Slumber soft, she looks like she did on lazy mornings, when they would wake in each other's arms, all mussed up, messed up and gentle. He reaches out and touches her hair.

“Oh God,” he says again, shivering at the feel of her. “You're real. You're really real. You're really here.”

She pushes against him, right into his open arms, and wraps herself around him. And he's kissing her, and she's kissing him back, and he's crying, and he can taste her tears. He tries to talk, incoherently mumbling his gratitude to whatever power brought her back to him, but her tongue is in his mouth, and their legs are a tangle, and her heart is beating so hard against him that he thinks his own might break.

“Ray...”

It's the wrong voice.

“Ray.” The voice is sharp, intrusive. He hangs onto Stella, like she's a raft, and he's drowning.

“RAY...”

He opens his eyes. He doesn't recognise her at first. She's the wrong face, the wrong girl.

Oh God.

“You were having a nightmare,” Frannie says, concern written on her brow. “You were talking in your sleep.”

Stella... 

“You bitch,” he says, dully. He can't look at her. He feels tears sliding, slug like, and he's too exhausted to even sit up and wipe his face. Everything aches, from his balls to his bones. He's been battered in places he didn't even know he had.

“What?” Her voice goes high, and he knows he's hurt her. He tries to make eye contact, but her face is an open wound.

“I'm sorry,” he manages to say.

“It wasn't a nightmare?”

He shakes his head. 

“I'm sorry too.” She bites her lower lip, trembling, a little girl who has been hit once too often. He hates himself. He made poor Frannie cry. 

Taking her hand in his he squeezes, and she holds it, hangs on tight.

“It will be all right Ray.” 

He sits up sharply, his eyes darting around for the source of the voice.

“What?” His heart is thundering in his ears.

“I didn't say anything,” Frannie is chewing her left hand, what remains of her ruined nails. 

He stares around him for the source of the voice. It comes again.

“It will be all right Ray,” she says gently. “I promise you sweetheart, somehow, someday it will be all right.”

“Stella?” He's on his feet, staring up and down the boat. “Stella?”

“Ray,” Frannie is standing very far away now, with her hand on his distant arm. “There's nobody there.”

Ray puts his fingers to his face, and catches his breath. 

He smells flowers. There is a mouth on his mouth, warmth on his lips, and the petal soft ghost of a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Stella is so beautifully realised in the zombie verse that she walked back into my head demanding another story. Also, the arrival of Victoria in Benny's head set me to thinking... why should Fraser be the only person haunted in this universe? So Stella turned up, and I was pleased to see that she became light to Victoria's shadow. 
> 
> So thank you to kalijean and SLWalker for making me fall in love with Stella. :)


End file.
